Jonathan Meres, the creator of The World of Norm, is our Gala Dinner speaker at this year’s conference. I had the pleasure of meeting him recently at the Red House Children’s Book Award ceremony, and also of conducting a quick fire interview with him.

Jonathan Meres signing a book for a local book group member at the recent Red House Children’s Book Award Ceremony

Jonathan Meres: Alexander McCall Smith, not only because of his frankly sickening prolificness but because his prose is like honey. Runny honey, not set. And not the cheap stuff either.

FCBG: What’s your favourite book and why?

Jonathan Meres: I’m rubbish at choosing favourite this or thats. Having said that, I do love John Irving and early Iain Banks. So if you really pressed me – right now I’d say The Crow Road because it has the greatest opening sentence ever.

FCBG: Which fictional landscape / home / country would you like to holiday in and why?

Jonathan Meres: Nutwood [of Rupert Bear fame]. Because everything rhymes. Or failing that I’d love to suddenly find myself frolicking about in the idyllic post-war landscape of Ladybird’s ‘What To Look For In Summer,’ riding on tractors, flagrantly ignoring any regard for health and safety.

FCBG: If you could travel back in time, which author/illustrator from the past would you most like to meet and why?

Jonathan Meres: Charles M. Schulz so that I could lock him up and take all the credit for Peanuts.

FCBG: What’s the funniest thing anyone has ever asked you at an author event?

Jonathan Meres: How many jobs haven’t you had?

FCBG: Is there a book you wish you had written, and why?

Jonathan Meres: Some kind of history book. Because that would probably mean that I was very good at history. Which I’m not.